The one thing Gareth has got if you play him down the middle is that where the central defenders try to position themselves will change

Chris Coleman

The manager plans to launch his experiment some time during tonight’s friendly against Austria in Swansea.

Nobody will be watching closer than Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas, who has admitted he is also keen to see if the speedy winger can solve his lack of orthodox strikers.

The 23-year-old is the only player to have scored for Wales in seven games since Coleman took over a year ago. With striker Steve Morison out injured Coleman, who briefly tried Bale up front in October’s 2-0 defeat in Croatia, is wondering whether to repeat the experiment.

He said: “The one thing Gareth has got if you play him down the middle is that where the central defenders try to position themselves will change.

“Nobody will want to get in a race with him, will they? So they will drop deep and the game will open up for other players.

“As soon as I put him there against Croatia, I saw the two centre-backs change their position because they are petrified of his pace, so I told him to stay up.

“Naturally, because he is a winger, he wants to get the ball deep to run at players, but he can be just as devastating if you put the ball behind and he is running on to it. He can do both things.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if Tottenham did that with him. He can be a threat anywhere.”

Villas-Boas admitted on Sunday that Bale was one of his answers after the club failed to buy a new striker then Jermain Defoe collected an ankle injury.

Coleman won’t start Bale at centre-forward but is almost certain to test his theory at some time as he looks for a way to win in Scotland next month.

He said: “We have to see if there are things we can do differently to surprise teams in the games we have left.

“The campaign is still important because it decides what draw you are likely to get for the Euros in 2016.”

Coleman has West Ham’s Jack Collison back in his line-up after injury and also hopes to help ­Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen pick himself up from his recent slump in form.